On Writing

General writing sites and magazines tend to break juvenile literature into two categories: young adult and children’s. Reality is such that children’s lit includes board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books and middle grade. Each subgen...

Make sure you read part one, where we cover the first three topics:
1. No talking for talking's sake
2. Don't be afraid of silence
3. Intermittent action
We left off discussing how to use supporting action along with your dialogue. Why shoul...

You've written a lovely story, edited it, kissed it for good luck and are sitting down to write a query letter to send to literary agents. But wait... what genre is this beautiful new story?
Uh, oh.
First of all, read AQ Crew's wonderful arti...

Now that AQC has moved, some of the members might miss having a place to get feedback on WIPs.
No need to despair on that account - there are plenty of websites where folks are downright eager to give feedback on all levels of fiction, non-fiction, p...

(Originally posted at Crossing the Helix, November 2010)
No, this is not a post on how to get yourself to meet your NaNoWriMo word count goals. This isn't about "get your cursor moving" motivation at all.
This is about motivation within...

Many writers, myself included, worry about writing dialogue. Does it flow? Does it sound natural? Is it interesting? I obsess over it in my own writing. If I’m concerned about word count, the first thing I’ll cut is dialogue. It’s easy to write b...

I wanted to take the opportunity to bring to everyone's attention this great series of books for writers. While at first glance it may seem like they are only useful to mystery / crime authors, but that's not the case. I've never written...

Like with certain other aspects of your life, protecting yourself from 'accidents' is something your don't want to put off. The same goes for backing up your writing.
Seriously, if you don't have a back up of your work, do so now. Do n...

*initially posted on 1/9/2010 at Words from the Woods*
We all have strengths and weaknesses, and it's a good thing to know what they are. Especially for a writer. If we fail to properly asses our abilities (or disabilities), we may find ourselve...